John the Ripper & Hashcat

🔧 Tool Note — Category: Password Cracking | Open Source

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📌 Quick Overview

Two complementary password cracking tools:

• John the Ripper: CPU-based, auto-detects hash types, great for quick attacks
• Hashcat: GPU-accelerated, fastest cracker available, requires specifying hash mode

Used in: EHPT

John the Ripper

# Dictionary attack (auto-detect hash)
john --wordlist=/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt hashes.txt
 
# Specify format
john --format=raw-md5 --wordlist=rockyou.txt hashes.txt
 
# Show cracked passwords
john --show hashes.txt

Hashcat

# MD5 (mode 0)
hashcat -m 0 hashes.txt rockyou.txt
 
# NTLM (mode 1000)
hashcat -m 1000 hashes.txt rockyou.txt
 
# SHA-256 (mode 1400)
hashcat -m 1400 hashes.txt rockyou.txt
 
# Show results
hashcat -m 0 hashes.txt --show

⚡ Quick Reference

→ Hash & Encryption Reference

🔗 Related Notes

• Exploitation
• Hydra — Online brute force (complements offline cracking)